Decorated textile fabric



June 6, 1939. F. D. CHENEY ET AL DECORATED TEXTILE FABRIC Original Filed April 22, 1936 INVENTORS F'RANK D. CHENEY JOHN LEARN D ATTORNEYS Patented June 6, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DECORATED TEXTILE FABRIC Original application April 22, 1936, Serial No.

Divided and this application June 3,

1938, Serial No. 211,565

. Claims.

The present invention particularly relates to decorated textile material and although it is particularly described in respect to its application to, pile textiles or fabrics, it is to be understood 5 that it also has a broader application to other types of fabrics.

The present application is a division of application, Serial No. 75,764, filed April 22,1936.

Pile textiles such as transparent velvets, millinery velvets, upholstery plushes and velours, mo-

hairplushes, and so forth, are composed of a ground composed of weft and warp threads, in-

terwoven with which is a pile.

The pile may be cut, in which case two ground fabrics are woven face to face, with the pile threads extending between them, the pile being cut to separate the two fabrics; or the pile may be uncut in which case the pile threads are woven over cords or wires and form loops.

The pile and the ground may be of the same or different fibers, and may include rayon, cotton, silk, acetate, mohair and other types of fibers.

In manufacturing these pile fabrics, the goods, as they are turned out by the loom, in cut or un- 25 out condition, are termed gray goods and these gray goods must be boiled off to remove the starch, gelatine or casein size from the rayon or cotton filaments and alsoto remove the gum from the natural silk.

30 Following this boil off, the fabric is dyed, hy-

dro-extracted to remove as much moisture as possible and then it is dried with suitable mechanical treatment of the pile to give it a desired set in the finalfabric.

86 v In the case-of the usual type of velvets, such as transparent or dress velvets, the pile, while the 1 40 In other types of pile fabrics, the pile may be flattened in one direction or it may be embossed or it may be crushed or it may be brushed in swirls or it may be cired, and as a result of these treatments the'pile acquires a distinctive set at the conclusion of the treatment.-

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a patterned or decorated textile fabric, particularly of the velvet or plush type, in which different areas arranged in desired designs on said fabric will be set so as to cause the pile to be erect, crushed, flattened, embossed, swirled or cired, while the other portions will be given a contrasting one" or the other of the aforementioned sets of the pile.

at Other objects will be obvious or will become apparent-during the course of the following specification.

In determining the above identified textile fabric, it has been found most satisfactory in connection with a velvet or plush fabric to first 5 finish the entire fabric with one of the previous aforementioned sets.

According to one method, after the gray goods have been boiled off or both boiled off and dyed, the pile may be finished and set in erect condition, flattened condition, crushed condition, swirled condition,-embossed condition or cired condition.

- Then, after the textile has been so finished an its pile has been set and it has been thoroughly 5 dried, it is subjected to a printing operation with a fixative or fixing agent which will have the effect of causing stabilization. or retention of the set of the pile in the portions to which the printing material is applied. 20

On the other hand, the entire fabric after the pile is set, may be treated with the" fixative and portions of the fixative removed by printing with a solvent or the fabric may be first printed with a substance or chemical which resists the fixation by the fixative and then subjected to an overall treatment with the fixative.

, The fixative may be applied to, predetermined areas or inactivated inpredetermined areas by methods other than printing and desirably fixa- 30 tive materialsare utilized such as formaldehyde or plastic materials which will affectthe rayon to cause it to retain a predetermined set without affecting its velvety quality and without destroying the smooth hand of the pile of the fabric which it is desired to retain.

The fixative material may conveniently contain formaldehyde and some agent which will cause such formaldehyde to chemically combine with or deposit upon the rayon pile ends so that 0 such pile ends will retain such predetermined set. without being affected by other set giving treatments which are applied to the untreated rayon pile ends. g

Printing pastes containing the formaldehyde and/or containing materials which will coagulate by formaldehyde may also be employed.

For example, a printing paste containing a coagulatable protein material such as albumin,

casein, glue, or gelatine, together with a coagulant, such as formaldehyde, tannin, alum or bichromat'e may be employed as a fixative, but in the preferred process, the fixative printing paste j contains a synthetic resinous material prefer-' ably in an intermediate stage of condensation, the

preferred resinous material being the intermediate urea-formaldehyde or thio-urea formaldehyde condensation product.

Among the other resinous materials which may ite resins, acrylic acid resins, phenol-aldehyde resins, acetone-phenol-aldehyde resins, phthalic acid polyhydroxy alcohol organic acid resins, and in some instances, other plastic materials than synthetic resins'which are convertible to an insoluble condition.

I These printing pastes, of course, may contain dyes or other materials, to give a desirable coloration to the portions of the fabric printed. v

Where an intermediate synthetic resin of the urea-formaldehyde type is employed, the fabric is subjected to a curing treatment to cause the resin to be converted into insoluble condition.

When the entire fabric is to be treated'or impregnated with a resin, either before or after printing with a resist or a solvent of the resin the fabric may be immersed in an aqueous bath containing an emulsion or solution of the resin.

With urea-formaldehyde resins, which have been first condensed under slightly alkaline conditions with an alkali metal salt, such as a phosphate, borate or carbonate followed by the addition of ammonium salt or a weak acid to cause an acid condensation, it is most desirable to carry out the curing operation from three to eight minutes between 250 to 400 F.

For example, in one instance, it has been found particularly satisfactory to cure for six minutes at temperatures ranging from 280 to 320 F.

Where the urea-formaldehyde resin has been prepared with a single catalytic agent and with para-formaldehyde, with the addition of catalysts such as sodium bicarbonate, alkali starch, alkali alcoholates, glycerol, diacetate, formamide,

. acetone-bisulphite ammonium salt, benzaldein water or in a liquor such as an alkali soap liquor to remove the gums and/or thickeners used in printing and to wet it so that the pile in the unprinted or untreated unfixed portions may be given a set-different than that of the pile in the printed portions.

For example, where the printed portions of pile have been flattened in one direction, the unprinted portions may be now flattened in another direction to give a contrasting decorative appearance or the unprinted portions may be subjected to some other contrasting set.

The essential feature of the present invention resides in giving one portion of the pile one set, while the other portion of the pile is given another set, which will give a contrasting permanent design, resistant to steaming and wearing which will not gradually weaken and disappear.

Where, instead of printing only portions of the pile with the fixing agent, the fabric is treated overall with the resin and the resin is then removed. from the places where it is desired to plished by an organic solvent or preferably by an inorganic dispersing agent, such as hydrochloric or a similar acid, which may be applied by a printing operation.

On the other hand, portions of the fabric may be printed with a resist material such as paraffin, dextrine, beeswax, mastic, oils, starch, ge1atine, agar-agar, and so forth, which will keep these portions of the pile from being afiected by the resin qr other fixing plastic, and then the entire fabric may be immersed or treated with a resin which will only affect those portions which have not been protected with theresist composition.

In any case, after the-resin is applied, the curing operation is caused to take place and then the fabric is moistened so that the intervening portions may be re-set to one or the other finishes above mentioned.

To summarize some of the methods of treat- I ment which may be employed to accomplish the decorative effects forming the objects of the 'presentinvention, the following examples may be given.

Example I The gray goods are boiled off, dyed, if desired, and then the pile is brushed and dried so that it will have an erect set.

The fabric then may be subjected to the following alternative treatments:

(a) The erect pile fabric may be treated all over with the resin, then cured, printed with a solvent and embossed with steaming and brushing up of the pile, resulting in the pile becoming erect in the unprinted portions.

(b) The erect pile fabric may be printed with a resist, treated all over with a resin, cured, treated to remove the resist and then brushed in swirls, the swirled effect being given to the printed portions only.

(c) The erect pile fabric may be treated all over with the resin, cured, printed with a solvent, crushed, followed by steaming and brushing to raise the pile in the unprinted portions, the steaming and brushing being sufiicient to eliminate'the crushed efiect in such unprinted portions.

(d) The erect pile fabric may be treated all over with the resin, cured, printed with solvent and brushed in swirls with the swirled effect being given to the printed portions only.

(e) The erect pile fabric may be printed with the resist, treated all over with resin, cured, treated to remove the resist or the resist may remain in certain instances, crushed, followed by steaming and brushing up of the pile which will remove the crushed effect in the unprinted portions.

(f) The erect pile fabric may be printed with a resin, cured, crushed and then steamed with brushing up of the pile resulting in making the pile erect in the printed portions.

'(g) The erect pfle fabric is printed with the resin, cured and brushed in swirls to give a swirled eflect to the unprinted portions.

Example I I The pile is crushed, after boiling oil and/or dyeing, by moistening with water, or by passing it slowly over an open box or trough containing boiling water or by passing it over a perforated or slotted pipe from which live steam is issuing and then twisting by holding one end of the piece while rotating the other end of the piece until the entire piece resembles a heavy rope. Fol

with resin, cured and steamed and brushed to restore the pile to erect position in the unprinted portions. 0 v (b) The crushed pile fabric is printed with resin, cured and the pile flattened to give a flattened set in the unprinted portions, while the printed portions remain crushed.

(0), The crushed pile fabric is treated all over with the resin, cured, printed with solvent and steamed with brushing up to make the pile erect in the printed portions, while the unprinted portions remains crushed.'

. (d) The crushed pile fabric is printed with the resist, treated all over with the resin, cured, treated to remove the resist, or the resist in some instances is left in and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the crushed effect in the printed portions.

Example III The pile of the finished product may be embossed and after embossing, subjected to one of the following treatments:

(a) The embossed pile fabric may be printed with resin, cured and then steamed and brushed to remove the embossed effect in the unprinted portions.

(b) The embossed pile fabric may be printed with the resist, then treated all over with the resin, cured, treated to remove the resist, or the resist in some instances is left in, and finally steamed and brushed to bring up the pile in the printed portions.

(c) The embossed pile fabric may be' treated all over with the resin, cured, printed with the resin solvent and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the embossed effect in the printed portions. 1

Example IV The pile of the fabric may be flattened, after boiling ofi and/or dyeing, by brushing the wet or dampened pile in one direction and drying the pile in its flattened condition on a tentering machine, in a hot chamber or by hot cylinder.-

In place of flattening it may also be cired by passing between two cylinders one ofwhich is heated and driven at a speed different than that of the other. It is then subjected to the following treatments:

(a) The flattened pile fabric may be printed with resin, cured and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the flattened effect in the unprinted portions.

(b) The flattened pile fabric anay be treated all over with resin, cured, printed with solvent and then steamed with brushing up of the pile in the printed forth.

to remove the flattened effect (c) The flattened pile fabric maybe printed with the resist, treated all over with the resin,

cured, in some instances treated to remove the resist, and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the flattened effect in the printed portions.

(d) The flattened pile fabric may be printed with resin, cured and then steamed with brushing of the pile to achieve a flattening of the pile in the unprinted portions in a direction opposite to that of the pile in the printed portions.

Example V swirled appearance, as for example by brushing with a number of rotating brushes,.followed by subjection to one or more of the following treatments (a) The swirled pile fabric may be printed I with the resist, treated'all over with the resin, cured, in some instances treated to remove the resist, and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the swirls in the printed portions.

(b) The swirled pile fabric may be printed with resin, cured, and then steamed with brushing up of the pile to remove the swirls in the unprinted portions. v I

Any of the above sets may be applied as the first set of the pile or as the second set of the pile after the pile has been treated with the resin with or without the resist and with or without printing with the resin solvent.

Initially, the pile may be finished erect,

I crushed, flattened, cired, brushed in swirls or embossed and then subjected to any one of the subsequent treatments in Examples I to V.

It is to be understood that the various alternative subsequent setting treatments disclosed in Examples I, II, III, IV, and V may be applied to a fabric, the pile of which has been set in portions in any desired manner;

While the fabric with the pile in erect condition may be printed with resin, a resist, or a solvent of the resin as set forth in Example I, nevertheless, as a general rule, it is preferred to flatten the pile before printing since in this condition a sharper outline of the pattern will be obtained with a much more certain configuration or application of the printing material Whether it be a pigment, resin, resist or solvent.

Of the above methods, the preferred methods. are that of Example II (a) and also that of Example IV (a)' according to which respectively,

the pile is first crushed or flattened, printed with resin, cured and then steamed with a brushing up of the pile in the. untreated portions.

- Although the present invention in certainaspects, is applicable to the decoration of non-pile fabrics in which it is desirable to set a flatness, wrinkling, creasing, crinkling, or embossing in certain configurations, while a contrasting one of these sets'is givenv to other portions of the non-pile fabric, nevertheless, the present. invention finds its preferred field of application to pile fabrics.

The present invention .in certain aspects is also applied to synthetic and natural furs or skins, napped or tufted fabrics, wool and fur felts and so forth.

Although the printing operation may be accomplished with engraved rollers, it is apparent that the fabrics may also be printed with the resin, the resist, the "resin solvent, or combinations thereof with stencils, blocks, screens and so amount of phthallc anhydride solution may be varied to give such acidity.

Then, about three quarts of the resin material are mixed with about four quarts of a thickening gum such as gum arabic, locust bean gum, dextrine, gum tragacanth or agar-agar.

For printing simultaneouslywith colors suflicient dyestuff may be added to the resin mixture to give the desired shade.

The application of the resin to portions of the pile followed by curing will cause such portions to be resistant to subsequent efforts to change the surface conditions, so that for example with subsequent crushing or flattening or embossing the set will not be changed, while the set of the portions not treated by resin or from which the resins have been removed by solvents may be readily changed by brushing and steam- On the other hand, such brushing and steam ing will be sufficient to remove the crushed, flattened or embossed effect in the non-resin treated portions.

Where the fabric is treated or printed with solvent, the fabric may be treated to remove the solvent before-further processing. Also the solvent in case of resins may be utilized before the resin has been cured, permitting the use of less drastic solvents than hydrochloric acid for removing the resin.

The parent applicatiomserial No. 75,764 filed April 22, 1936 is particularly directed to the process of obtaining the fabrics of the present application. The present application is directed to the decorated fabrics which may be produced by the process claimed in said patent application and to fabrics having the same characteristics which may be produced by other processes than specifically disclosed in said parent appli-.

cation.

In the drawing is illustratively shown a fabric to which the design has been applied in accordance-with the present invention.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan viewof the portion of the fabric carrying the design.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic crosssection'upon the line 2--2, 2-2, and 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic cross section upon the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the set may be erect in the areas designated at ID with the pile ends standing upright, as indicated at H in Figure 2; and the set may be crushed, flattened or otherwise made contrasting in the areas indicated at I2 in Figure 1, and diagrarmnatically indicated by the depressed or down turned ends at I3 in Figure 3.

Either the set III or the set l2 may be first applied to the fabric and permanentized in the areas indicated, followed by the application of the desired set, which may also be permanentized if desired.

However, it is generally preferred to give the entire pile the set indicated in the areas [2 and then print only those areas l2 to permanentize the set in these areas following which the pile in the unpermanentized areas In may be finished to have an erect set, as indicated at H in Figure 2.

It is to be understood, however, that invention is not to'be restricted to any particular example, composition or proportions, or to any particular application, or to any specific manner of use or to any of various details thereof, herein described, as the same may be modified in various particulars or be applied in many varied relations without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed invention, the practical embodiments herein described merely showing some of the various featuresentering into the application of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A decorated regenerated cellulose rayon pile fabric having substantially its normal pliabillty and hand carrying a design in the pile formed by different contrasting sets of the pile in diiferent areas, at least one of said sets being permanent and the pile ends in said area being combined with a permanentized chemical fixative agent.

2. A decorated regenerated cellulose rayon pile fabric having substantially its normal 'pllability and hand carrying a design in the pile formed by difierent contrasting sets of the pile in different areas, at least one of said sets being permanent and the pile ends in said area being combined with a permanentized chemical fixative agent,

group of sets consisting of a crushed set, an erect set, a swirled set, a flattened set, an embossed set and a cired set.

3. A decorated regenerated cellulose rayon pile fabric having substantially its normal pliabillty and hand carrying a design in the pile formed by diiferent contrasting sets of the pile in different areas, at least one of said sets being permanent and the pile ends in said area being combined with a permanentized chemical fixative agent, said fixative agent including a urea formaldehyde resin.

4. A decorated regenerated cellulose rayon pile fabric having substantially its normal pliabillty and hand carrying a design' in the pile formed by different contrasting sets of the pile in different 7 areas, at least one of said sets being permanent and the pile ends in said area being combined with a permanentized chemical fixative agent,

' said fixative agent including formaldehyde.

FRANK D. CHENEY. JOHN LEARNED. 

